£42 million funding for new battery storage centre

The Faraday Institution has received £42 million of funding from the UK Government to help develop cutting-edge research and development into energy storage.

The funding will be used to support four projects to help address challenges in battery technologies. These include how to reduce the costs and lifespan of batteries; increasing battery performance; appropriate recycling, and researching new ‘solid state’ batteries.

The institute was set up by the government in 2017 to lead UK research on energy storage technologies with a particular focus on batteries. The centre formed part of a new £246 million initiative into increasing expertise in the technology, termed the ‘Faraday Challenge’.

Announcing the funding, Business Minister Richard Harrington said,

“With 200,000 electric vehicles set to be on UK roads by the end of 2018 and worldwide sales growing by 45 per cent in 2016, investment in car batteries is a massive opportunity for Britain and one that is estimated to be worth £5 billion by 2025.

We are committed to making Britain the 'go-to' destination for the development and deployment of this game-changing technology”

The research programmes will draw on a wide pool of academic talent to advance understanding, including the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham, Glasgow and Imperial College London. They will also partner with the energy industry, which will contribute a further £4.6 million to support the work.

Peter B. Littlewood, founding executive chair of the Faraday Institution, said: “To deliver the much needed improvement in air quality in our cities and achieve our aspiration for cleaner energy targets we need to shift to electric vehicles quickly. These research programmes will help the UK achieve this”.

He added: “Through steady investment in basic research on specific societal challenges identified by industry and government, the UK will become a world-leading powerhouse in energy storage”.

The institute will be based at the world-renowned Harwell Science and Innovation campus in Oxfordshire.